NYPD stop-and-frisk whistleblowers facing retribution

Cops who testified against the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy have faced retribution from higher-ups and officers who subscribe to the idea that the controversial tactic, deemed unconstitutional by major courts, is fair and legal.

NYPD officer Pedro Serrano told the Associated Press he’s faced
harassment at work after testifying that stop-and-frisk, which was
enacted in 2002, targets minorities and requires patrol officers to
meet monthly quotas.

Serrano said that, along with finding a sticker of a rat pasted
to his locker, he says he's been micromanaged - including
transferral to a different precinct to work an overnight shift. He
also claimed that he was refused overtime hours amid an otherwise
erratic schedule.

“A lot of people told me not to come forward because of what
would happen – they said the department would come after me,”
Serrano said. “But I’ve been thinking about it since 2007. I
felt I couldn’t keep quiet.”

Serrano, along with fellow officers Adrian Schoolcraft and Adhyl
Polcano, secretly recorded hours of patrol briefings and meetings
with superior officers. The audio was played during the current
federal trial meant to determine if black and Hispanic men are
targeted by NYPD cops seeking to boost their numbers.

Polcano testified that he was told he needed to have 20
summonses, five street stops and one arrest each month.

“I was extremely bothered by what I was seeing out
there,” he said on the stand. “The racial profiling, the
arresting people for no reason, being called to scenes that I did
not observe a violation and being forced to write a summons that I
didn’t observe.”

Polcano was suspended from duty and charged with filing false
arrest paperwork after he detailed a list of grievances to the
police department’s internal affairs. He now works in a video
review department. Schoolcraft, who remains suspended, did not
testify at the trial because he has filed his own federal suit
accusing superior officers of forcefully taking him to a
psychiatric hospital in 2009.

Other officers who testified painted Serrano’s complaints as an
unfortunate but necessary part of the job. Joseph Esposito, the
former chief of the department, testified that most officers
“leave their house every day to go to work to protect the city.
They have the best intentions all the time, and they do it. There
is a small percentage…we’re talking about in any profession, there
is a group that will try to do the least amount and get paid the
most.”

The alleged harassment would fit in the narrative of the NYPD.
In the early 1970s plainclothes officer Frank Serpico accused the
department of widespread corruption only to be shot in the face
during a later investigation. Labeled a traitor by the police but a
hero by others, Serpico was portrayed by Al Pacino in a popular
eponymous movie chronicling his story two years later.

During an interview with the Associated Press Serpico said
recent events prove NYPD groupthink hasn’t evolved past a “kill
the messenger” mentality.

“I’ve become their grandfather,” he said. “They don’t
want nothing. They just want somebody who knows what they’re going
through. I give them moral support.”

The trial has been underway for more than a month, and recently
included testimony from a parade of officers trying to discredit
Polcano and Serrano as malcontents who often caused trouble. NYPD
policy dictates that officers are required to report corruption
without fear of retribution.

“It hasn’t been a picnic,” Serrano said. “They have
their methods of dealing with someone like me.”